Beaver Dam to stand in for Tucson

Scene painter Steve Kraft, Oshkosh, has been hard at work giving The Rogers a southwest flair for the shooting of "Public Enemies."

STREETS TO CLOSE FOR FILMING "Public Enemies" location director Adam Boor met with city of Beaver Dam officials a couple of times on Thursday to secure that downtown Beaver Dam will be ready for the movie to be shot on Monday. City department heads met early Thursday morning and agreed to provide assistance from the police, public works department and the water department. The city operations committee had a special meeting Thursday night and agreed to assist by closing the parking lot on Maple Avenue behind The Rogers and North Spring Street between Front and Third streets and Maple Avenue from Center Street to Lincoln Avenue. Boor said that they will want to hire four squads and six officers from the city to help with crowd control the day of filming. Police Chief Dale Boldt said they will have to use off duty officers and probably can use the non-marked squad cars as well. Universal Studios also provides their own security. Police protection and any other city services needed for the filming will be reimbursed by the studio. Trailers will be set up in the Beaver Dam Middle School parking lot on North Spring St. But the streets directly around the block should not be affected by the filming so parents should have no problem getting their children to school. At St. Katharine Drexel School on Maple Avenue, parents will have to pass beyond one barricade to drop their children off. They will have to turn around before they reach a second set of barricades. Customers of Family Video can enter the lot on North Spring Street and exit the lot on Maple Street. A section of the lot will be used as the movie's base camp. Boor said an area will be set up for fans who come see the movie being made. Traffic lights in Columbus and Beaver Dam will be removed today and stop signs will be put in place. Construction of the sets will continue until the sets are ready for shooting on Monday. The crew will arrive on the scene around 5 a.m. on Monday, Boor said. After setting up the shot, the actors will begin around mid morning to shoot the scene. The scene taking place at The Rogers is a portion of a scene that will be finished at a hotel in Chicago. Sometime in the afternoon, Boor said they hope to wrap up filming in Beaver Dam and head to Columbus to shoot scenes on East James Street. The 100 block of East James Street will be closed to traffic until the day of shooting. Boor said on Monday the entire area that was closed down during the March shooting will be closed down again to shoot the scene in the 100 block of East James Street. After Monday's shoot, crews will put the cities back to normal on Tuesday. Work in Columbus may take more than one day. The production will then head to Mirror Lake in Sauk County near Wisconsin Dells. They will return to Columbus to shoot scenes at a home in the city at a later date.

The Rogers has been a symbol of Beaver Dam for 80 years, but in the movie "Public Enemies" it will represent a building in Tucson, Ariz.

John Dillinger was captured in Tucson in 1934, according to www.dotomtucson.com. The city still celebrates the event with "Dillinger Days 1934 Street Festival." A fire that broke out in a hotel in Tucson on Jan. 24, 1934, led to the arrest of Dillinger when firefighters recognized him and several other criminals after seeing a photo in "True Detective Magazine."

Dillinger was later sent to a jail that was boasted to be "escape proof" in Crown Point, Ind. But on March 3, 1934, Dillinger forced the guards to open his cell door. He stole two machine guns and fled.

"Public Enemies" location scout Adam Boor said the streets near Hotel Rogers should be shut down for three days: Sunday to finish putting up the scenes, Monday for filming and Tuesday to restore downtown to 2008.

Although rain might not be desirable for the shoot, Boor said that they have been working through the weather while making the movie.

"It's a pretty well-oiled machine now," Boor said. "They know exactly what they will do."

Scenes for the movie, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, have already been shot in Columbus, Oshkosh and Manitowish Waters.

The Roger's manager Joe Murray said they have begun painting the lobby but there will be several bigger changes including adding wood paneling and a chandelier in the elevator.

"The carpet will be changed into an earth-tone," Murray said. "Everything is being given a southwest feel."

Thursday crews were painting over the yellow curbs outside of the building.

Other signs of the 21st century will be removed for the shooting.

"We're taking things away that aren't 1933," Boor said.

Hotel Roger signs will be removed from the building as the building changes to the Congress Hotel.

There also will be cactuses outside and a tree planter will be removed for filming, but replaced afterwards. Murray said many of the antiques that had been in the lobby will be used in the movie.

Boor said they have talked to local businesses and they are excited about the filming. Most of the buildings in the area will be accessible during the day when the filming will occur.

Noah Wheeler, an employee at Family Video, said the movie's excitement has already hit the video store. He said Johnny Depp movies are leaving the shelves quite frequently.

"I just put away a couple of Michael Mann movies," Wheeler said. "There are more Johnny Depp movies being checked out than Michael Mann's movies."

Wheeler said he does think the store will be busy on Monday but he doesn't know how many of the people will be there to rent movies or to get a chance of seeing a movie being made.

Boor said the actors will enter the building, but most of the scene will take place inside The Rogers.

"Johnny Depp has been doing walk throughs at the locations we have shot at," Boor said. "But no one knows if he will do it here. It's not a guarantee."

The production generally leaves one location and travels directly to the next location, Boor said. They will probably arrive the night before the shoot.

Filming is set up to be one day but Boor said they are planning on it only taking a half a day.

tpederson@capitalnewspapers.com